The author is pretty good in horror genre. However he's better with one-shots than prolonged stories such as this (he can make and exploit one interesting idea pretty well but to write an actual long story with people is a bit beyond his abilities). I can recommend it only to those who already like him from his previous one-shots and Uzumaki.

Can't say that i didn't enjoy it but it's not a very good manga tbh...
The characterisation is quite bad...the characters feel very one-dimensional and were not developed at all...The way everybody turned against remina was hardly believable and happened too fast...once again junji ito leaves aspects of the plot unexplained not because he wanted the readers to find out the answers but because he's not a v.good storyteller to come up with equally bizarre explanations to the bizarre and otherwordly situations he's describing...

he's disregarding basic laws of astronomy in this manga plus i didn't think the identity of the masked man was satisfying or logical....at times the story feels silly but it also feels scary and gross (mainly due to art) which is good

Don't blame me, i'm a fan of junji ito and love his art which i find scary, haunting and skilled...the facial expressions are always perfect and i always loved the way he draws women but this not something you would suggest to someone...i would give it a 6 but i enjoyed it more than that; therefore the 7

... Last updated on August 10th, 2011, 10:49am

Really... science-fictiony, but definately not a horror, sorry. I was disappointed. There is an extra oneshot included, "An Army of One" and that is wonderfully dark.

This is a very fun story that you can read quickly in one sitting. It's best enjoyed if you go into it more for the concept than the characters, and if you're relatively familiar with the way Lovecraft (who's a huge influence on Ito) constructs his stories. As with Lovecraft, the characters aren't that important (most of his stories have basically the same type of narrating protagonist), and are mostly one-dimensional and serve one purpose: to highlight the idea—which, in this case, is "how would humanity react to a planet-consuming alien organism approaching Earth?"

Of course, Ito puts his own cultural twist on it, with Remina Oguro being paraded around as an idol simply because of her coincidental name (to the profit of her talent agency), and with the cult-like fanaticism born out of both idolization and despair. It helps if you think of her as more of a pretext than a character; while she isn't responsible for the havoc that Hellstar Remina wreaks, humanity does, ironically, entrust her with their fate.

The art is much better than Ito's usual fare, simply because this, like Uzumaki, makes heavy use of landscapes. In general (aside from a few exceptions), Ito has very same-y character models and his backgrounds don't tend to get the spotlight much, but here we have many two-page spreads and separate panels to really take in the horrifying beauty of the Hellstar Remina. Quite the treat!

Once again: heavily recommended if you're a fan of Lovecraft and cosmic horror. I think you'll find it enjoyable, provided you aren't looking for a deep character- or hard logic-driven piece, and just want to see a good ol' insane Ito plot with a Lovecraftian flavor. Basically: don't think about it too hard, just sit back and enjoy the pulpy show.

Even though it's not the best of Junji Ito's works, it's still pretty good all things considered. The basic idea behind this manga is so original it carries the whole thing by itself.

... Last updated on November 25th, 2022, 3:01pm

Story: 4/10
Art: 7/10
Characters: 3/10
Quality Polish Edition: 6/10
Enjoyment: 4/10
Overall: 4.8/10